She says it found there was a risk to his life if he sent back to Uruzgan but not if he was returned to Kabul.

"The concerning issue here is that there is inconsistency in decision making within the Refugee Tribunal where a large number of Hazaras have been granted protection in similar situations; they've even found that Kabul is an insecure place to relocate to," she said.

The threat to Hazaras remains in many parts of Afghanistan and hundreds of thousands have fled from regional areas to Kabul where it is comparatively safer.

Prospects bleak for the illiterate, unskilled

But Liza Schuster, a Kabul-based expert on the Hazaras, says the prospects for the 65-year-old man are bleak if he is sent back.

"Given the current situation, a situation in which there's 48 per cent unemployment - and that's a conservative estimate - given the poverty, given the lack of a welfare system, I really don't understand how the Australian Government expects him to survive," she said.

Ms Schuster say the man's situation is being seen in Kabul as a test case and she fears it could lead to dozens of other Hazaras seeking asylum in Australia being forcibly sent back.

Yunus Noori from the Australian Hazara Association says the community is concerned.

"We think that this is going to be a test case or a precedent," he said.

She says Western governments have a history of using aid money as leverage to get Afghanistan's Ministry for Refugees and Repatriation to take back asylum seekers.

"The ministry is entirely dependent on foreign aid money in order to be able to provide any kind of services to the 600,000 internally displaced people in Kabul and the five million people who have returned from Pakistan and Iran," she said.

"It's in a very weak situation which means that foreign governments are able to and do exert a huge amount of pressure on a weak and, I have to say, not particularly competent ministry, to do whatever they want."

The minister for refugees and repatriation, Jamahir Anwari, recently survived a no-confidence motion in Afghanistan's parliament over corruption allegations.

There is no suggestion that the Australian Government is linked in any way to these activities.

A spokesman for Immigration Minister Scott Morrison says the Government will not confirm or deny any possible removal action by the Department.